Fire-escape.



No. 872,050. PATENTED NOV. 26, 1907. -P. G. BURHANS.

FIRE ESCAPE.

APPLICATION FILED JULY14,1906.

W1 HVESSES: JDflZZZ 5 @7215) [Nl/ENTOR.

- A TTORNEYS PATENT OFFICE.

PAUL O. BURHA'NS, OFPHGENIX, NORTH DAKOTA.

FIRE-ESCAPE.

Specification of Letters Patent. Application find July 14,1906. SerialNo. 326.245.

To all whom 'it may concern:

Be it known that 1, PAUL C. BURHANS, a citizen of the United States,residing at Phoenix, in the county of Burleigh and State of NorthDakota, have invented a new and useful Firei'scape, of which thefollowing is a specification.

This invention relates to-fire escapes of that type including a lifeline by which persons, can be lowered automatically from win dows orother suitable points of a burning building to the sidewalk.

' The invention has for one of its objects to provide a life savingapparatus of this character which is soconstructed that a building canbe readily equipped with the same without any alterations thereof beingrequired, the apparatus being adapted to be placed in rooms adjacent awindow and inclosed as to certain of its parts in a suitable casingwhich may serve as a window seat or other piece of furnishing for theroom.

A further object of the invention is to provide a winding mechanism forthe life line so organized and equipped with a retarding device that thedescent of a person can be smoothly arid gently made without imperilinglife.

Another object is the employment of a swinging bracket adapted to beositioned adjacent the window on the inside of the room, so as to beswung out of the window a suitable distance that the life line will besupported away from the wall of the building and thereby permit thedescent to be made without endangering the person-by striking rojectingstructures on the building. A further advantage of the bracket'is thatthe rope will be supported off the window sill and thereby beprevented'from scraping and cutting in two.

Another object of the invention is to provide a simple and inex ensivedevice'of the character referred to w iich can be installed at littleexpense, is easy to operate and reliable, andrequires a minimum ofspace.

With these objects in view, and others, as will appear as the nature ofthe invention is better understood, the invention comprises the variousnovel features of construction and arrangement of parts, more fullydescribed hereinafter, and set forth with particularity in the appendedclaims.

In the accompanying drawing, which illustrates one of the embodiments ofthe inven- Patented Nov, 26, 1907.

tion, Figure 1 is a view showing the invention in use. Fig. 2 is a frontelevation ,.of the means for winding andunwinding the lifeline. Fig. 3is an end view of the same showing parts of the retarding device insection. Fig. 4 is a plan view of the said device.

Corresponding parts in the several figures are indicated throughout bysimilar characters of reference.

Referring to Fig. 1 of the drawing, a portion of a building is shown insection, a room being designated by A having a window B.

The mechanism for paying out and winding up the life-line is indicatedby C, the same being inclosed in a box D, thelid of which is swung open,while the apparatus is in use, as shown. The box or casing D may be, andpreferably is, provided with suitable ornamentation, so as to add to theappearance of the apparatus, and it may be placed directly in front of awindow, as shown, so as to serve, when the a aratus is not in use, as awindow seat. can be set at one side of the window. Located at anydesired height on the window .frame, or adjacent thereto, is a hingeddesired, however, it

bracket E, the hinges of which are indicated at e. The bracket is soarranged as to conveniently swing from a position in the room, when notin use, to a position extending out of the window, as shown. On the endsof the bracket are arranged pulleys e over which the life-line F isguided. By means of ,this bracket, the life-line is supported above thewindow sill so that there is no danger of the line cutting byfrictionally riding on any parts liable to produce injury. Furthermore,the bracket supports the life line at a suitable distance from the wallof the building, so as to reduce to a minimum the likelihood of accidentresulting from the person striking the wall, or projections thereon, andagain, the location of the bracket above the window sill. permits of aperson easily swinging out of the window, after havin adjusted the sackor envelop G around his ody. The sack G, which is attached to the freeend of the life line, may be of any suitable construction, the same, bypreference, being provided with legs so as not to restrict the movementsof the user when in the sack, and ada ted to be fastened around the bodyjust un er the arms, as by the horizontal shaft 5.

ing or box D so as to be out of the way, and the bracket is swung intothe room to a position alongside of the wall.

as shown in Flgs. 2 and 3, comprises a base plate 1, whichis screwed,bolted, or otherwise fastened to the floor or other suitable part, andarranged at the ends of the base plate are brackets 2 and 3 bolted tothe base plate. The brackets are provided with bearings 4 for receivingthe op 'osite ends of The s aft 5 is rovided with spaced flanges 6between w oh the life-line winds and unwinds.

In order to prevent the rope from unwinding at too great a speed,retarding means are required. For this purpose, an automatiefrictionbrake is employed which comprises a stationary drum 7 and centrifugallyacting weights 8 that are preferably semi-discus in shape and eachpivoted at one end on a supporting plate 9; In order to produce asufficient braking action While the ine is unwinding and to partiallyrelease the braking effect to permit'the line to be readily rewoundmanually preparatory to the next descent, it is preferable to locate thepivots 'atpoints toward those ends. of the Weights that are in advanceduring the windin movement and in rear during the unwin ing movement, sothat during the, latter movement of the line, the weights will be pushedaround the inside of the drum, the

friction due to the engagement of these parts operating to draw theweights out and.

increase the braking action, whereas during the winding movement, theweights will be drawn around the friction drum with a minimum offriction. The plate 9 is rotated by means of an upri ht shaft 10 thatissuitably connected with t e shaft o so as to receive rotationtherefrom, and .hence act to retard the movement of the shaft when thesame exceeds a certain speed. The power transmitting connection etweenthe shafts 5 and 10 is desired to be ofsuch 'a character as to possess acertain amount of retarding action, so that the entire work of retardingthe movement of the shaft 5 willnot be brought to bear on the brake.While. the power transmitting connection -is intended to act with thebrake in this manner, it will, at the same time, impart sufficient speedto the brake device to throw the centrifugally acting weights intooperation. For this pur pose, a spiral gear is employed comprising awheel 11 meshing with the s iral teeth or thread 12 on the shaft 10. heshaft 5 is extended beyond the standard 3 so as to receive the. wheel 11and permit the latter to serve as a crank wheel for winding up thelife-line after a person has descended. The crank for turning the wheelis indicated at 13.

The spiral gear shaft 10 is mounted at its lower end in a stepbearing'14 provided in a The windin and unwinding mechanism,"

base extension 15 of the bracket 3. Ex: tending laterally from the upperend of the bracket to which the brake drum 7 may be integrall orotherwise, attached. This extension a so forms a bearing for the upperend of the shaft 10. By the construction described, the rotation of theshaft 5 imparts a rotary movement to the brake-shaft 10 through thespiral gearing. If a person of light weight is descending, the weightmay not be sufficient to create sufficient speed oftheshaft 5 to bringthe brake into operation, the spiral gearin serving, in this case, toretard theunwin ing of the lifeline. Vighile .a spiral gear may bedesigned to operate satisfactorily in this manner, it is quite obviousthat a worm on the shaft 10 would be inoperative. When a heavy persondescends by the life-line, the latter tends to unwind at a greaterspeed, which speed,

being communicated to the shaft 10, auto matically brings the brakedevice into operation so that the descent can be made gently and withoutdiscomfort to the person.

I have described the princlple of operation of the invention, togetherwith the apparatus which I now consider to be the best embodimentthereof, but I desire to have it understood that the'appara'tus shown ismerely illustrative, and that various changes may be made, when desired,as are within the scope of the invention.

What is claimed is .In a fire escape, the combination with a suitablewinding device having a life line fastened thereto at one end, and meansfor guiding the line during its winding and unwinding, and means formanually operating the said device to rewind the line,

of a brake for *controlling the operation of said'device embodying agear wheel revoluble with the winding device, a bearing supporting oneend of the winding device and having a step hearing at its base andahollow friction drum arranged in alinement therewith, a shaft having oneend cooperating with the step bearing andhaving its upper end shoulderedand cooperating with a relatively fixed portion of the friction drum toprevent upward movement of the shaft, a circular plate revoluble withthe said shaft and fitting the friction drum, centrifugally actingweights pivoted on said plate and cooperating with the friction "drum,and a spiral gear on said shaft cooperating with the said gear.

Intestimony that I claim the foregoing as my own, I have heretoaflixed'my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

PAUL o. BURHANS.

standard 3 is an extension 16 forming a

